Remembering Børge Ring on his 100th...

Today would have been my old mentor Børge Ring's 100th birthday.
I miss him often, also with relation to this blog, as he was one of the most ardent readers of it, especially the early Mickey drafts. Børge's career really took off in Denmark, after having been professional jazz musician for nearly a decade, when he co-founded the studio Ring, Frank and Rønde in 1948. In 1952 he invited the director of Disney's Snow White and Bambi, Dave Hand to come to Denmark.Here are the two at that time. Acting here for the camera as if Hand just had driven to the store to fetch two beers. Hand had come from Rank's closed Cookham studio in England and stayed for a couple of months, in which time he fired up under Børge's resolve to become the best animator he could be. They hoped to get Nordisk Film to finance the second Danish feature film "Klods Hans" (English: "Blockhead Hans") based on the H.C. Andersen story, but Nordisk got cold feet and Hand returned to the US. Not long after, Børge and his friend and collegue Bjørn Frank Jensen left Denmark for Marten Toonder Studios in Holland...
(Thank you to Bjørn's daughter for the above photo!)



I owe Børge most of what I know about animation, timing, direction and storytelling. Much of my interest in Disney history came from or at least was ignited by him during the four years I worked with him. For one thing, I saw my first Disney drafts at his house...
I last last visited him in April 2017, where this photo was taken of Børge, his wife Joanika and myself. (Thank you to Stacia Martin!)